Category: Global Development Lab

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Where Engineering and Chemistry Intersect for Global Impact

During these uncertain times, the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity’s Global Development Lab has been hard at work this summer. Fellows, faculty, and industry professionals collaborate to create meaningful solutions to promote a resilient humanity. While supporting our community the Global Development addresses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and challenges. One collaborative interdisciplinary team is lead by two Fellows, Dr. David Son and Dr. Paul Krueger. Their project is a joint chemical and engineering approach to develop a degradable plastic to address the environmental issues of plastic waste.  It is comprised of two lab teams and a team in the Hunt Institute. Featured in the image to the left was the team in the Spring of 2020 semester. Over the Summer semester, Sami Streb joined Dr. Krueger’s lab team and Taylor Grace as the undergraduate project manager.

Currently, many biodegradable products in the market are bio-based, produced from nature (plants, animals, or microorganisms). For example, they may contain products such as polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids. However, this approach faces challenges due to high cost, weaker performance, and overlooked environmental issues. Several degradable plastics have proven to break down faster under specific environmental conditions.  Although, it  may not actually reflect the normal environment, but it may not be effectively degradable under natural conditions. Many biodegradable plastics tend to need particular waste management methods which are not always widely available. These challenges pose a gap in the market due to the composition and degradation abilities.

As a result, Dr. Son and Dr. Krueger plan to investigate various prototype plastics with predictable degradation and mechanical properties, specifically useful in applications for alleviating plastic waste. These characteristics are significant advances to biodegradable products currently leading the market. With the ability to control the plastic’s properties, they can impart certain desirable properties to the material or give predictable properties to the final plastic material.

In order to make the largest impact in the current biodegradable plastic industry, a potential deliverable for their research could be to pursue a single-use PPE similar to what is typically used due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Specifically, the project is researching the production of a degradable mask frame with adequate seal to the face, as seen in N95 respirator masks. Typically, plastic can take ~ a thousand years to degrade in a landfill where degradable plastic (or PPLs) can degrade in ~ one year. Certain plastics can be designed to begin degrading when introduced to a certain property like salt water. The teams are exploring a variety of options. One area of interest is the inevitable increase of medical waste due to the rise in single-use face coverings and analyzing the shortage of single-use respirator masks in health care facilities due to the direct interactions with infected patients. This is in alignment with the UNSDG Goal 3, “To ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.” It will also address Goal 14, “To conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources” due to the degradable nature of the frame. 

Stay tuned to the Hunt Institute Digest to read more about this project and other projects in the Global Development Lab.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

 

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Moments that Matter

The Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center is working toward improving engagement with veteran women entrepreneurs through a series of national focus groups in 2020. The data from the focus groups will help business development and support providers across our nation improve how they engage women veteran entrepreneurs. The purpose is to gather data to advocate for additional services and adequate funding across our nation for women veteran entrepreneurs.

VR Small is the VWEC’s CEO and an Associate in the Hunt Institute. VR’s project was accepted into the 2020 Cohort for the Global Development Lab in January. Phase I of Moments that Matter was comprised of a survey to women veteran entrepreneurs in the DFW metroplex in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A report of the survey outcomes is expected to be released summer 2020. Phase II is the design and implementation of the focus groups for a deeper dive into key survey questions.

VR’s undergraduate analyst Scott Zuo, undergraduate project manager Shelby Lauren Griffith, and GDL Portfolio Manager Corrie Harris have navigated uncharted waters due to the global pandemic managing to push this project forward amid closures, delays, and ever-changing redirects. As a result, they have created an online alternative for the focus groups. Collaboration with faculty members has helped the team to design an online formulate qualitative questions for the focus group sessions. VR is also a Navy veteran and social entrepreneur. She brings an added layer of relevance to the process with her many years of experience in the small business arena.

Ultimately, this process will result in an online platform that provides a national, regional, and local overview of women veteran entrepreneurs, outlining demographics, industries, average revenues, contracts, capital secured, and more. This platform will offer metrics that clearly identify how women veteran entrepreneurs are helping to drive our nation’s economy. In addition, this data will highlight potential areas of support, such as enhanced technical assistance, access to varied financial products, and expanded contracting opportunities. Both veteran women entrepreneurs and those that partner with them will have access to this platform.

Gaining feedback from women veteran business owners about the moments that matter most during their entrepreneurial  journey will provide key decision makers and funders with a vivid illustration of the real economic impact. It will also inform them of  the ongoing challenges faced by women veteran entrepreneurs. The data from their feedback will help drive the timely allocation of funding resources to areas  that will have the greatest impact toward advancing women veteran owned businesses in our nation. In addition, this is an opportunity to highlight those who have proudly served in the military and  to share their unique experiences. Now more than ever, we need to amplify the voices of our women entrepreneurs and ensure they have the resources needed to succeed.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Filling the Gap for Seismic Protection

Image from Volcano Discovery

Peru is located in a seismic zone where the South American Plate moves toward the sea over the Nazca Plate causing earthquakes as a result of the thrust faulting on the interface of the two plates.  According to Volcano Discovery, Peru endured 81 quakes in May of 2020. With the exception of an occasional break in seismic energy, Peruvians live with earthquakes as a daily condition. Dr. Nicos Makris, Hunt Institute Fellow, has been leading a research team of collaborators and students at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering as well as internationally, to address this pressing issue. Their project in the Global Development Lab (GDL) focuses on seismic protection solutions for confined masonry urban housing. The in-country partner is Dr. Marcial Blondet who has dedicated over thirty years to researching the effects of seismic activity on masonry and adobe construction in Peru.

All projects in the GDL address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This effort directly targets SDG #11 which seeks to ensure that growth in housing and urban development is safe, equitable, and environmentally conscious. UN Target 11.5 highlights the importance of this effort as it sets the target to “significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters…with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations” (1). 

Kostas Kalfas (Ph.D. student and researcher), Corrie A. Harris (Portfolio Manager), JuliaGrace Walker (Undergraduate Project Manager), Sam Borton (Undergraduate Research Analysis), and Dr. Nicos Makris.

Even middle-class urban residents in Peru’s urban environment often reside in poorly constructed confined masonry houses which, in the case of a severe earthquakes, are at the risk of suffering serious damage. Professional construction is expensive and beyond reach for the majority of Peruvians. For this reason, the seismic protection market is increasingly narrowing its focus to low-cost solutions. One of the goals of this project has been to evaluate existing low-cost solutions accessible for most Peruvians (2). Finding that even “low-cost” solutions are out of reach for most Peruvians, Dr. Makris makes an alternate proposition. Rocking isolation offers great potential as an innovative and economical alternative for seismic protection, but it has yet to be implemented as low-cost housing reinforcement. Makris’ emerging system of seismic protection could address the pressing need for affordable seismic protection of existing masonry structures.

Sam Borton, Hunt Institute Undergraduate Research Analyst, made a significant contribution to this post with his market analysis of low-cost seismic protection. The complete analysis will be released in a future post. Stay tuned to read more!

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

  1. About the Sustainable Development Goals – United Nations Sustainable Development. (n.d.). Retrieved 2020, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
  2. Blondet, M., & Loaiza, C. (2020). Vulnerabilidad Sísmica de las Construcciones en el Perú: Informe Preliminar. Lecture presented in Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú: Departamento de Ingeniería.
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Hunt Institute’s First Student Social Entrepreneur

Mohammed Nije Trip

Janta EnergyThe Hunt Institute Social Enterprise Program is proud to introduce our first student social entrepreneur, Mohammed Njie. Mohammed is a rising senior at Southern Methodist University studying Electrical Engineering in Lyle School of Engineering. He was born and raised in The Gambia, a country in Western Africa. In the Gambia, 52% of people do not have access to electricity, and the remaining 48% have unreliable access. Mohammed attended high school at one of the few schools with electricity. Seeing students at other institutions that did not have access to electricity, motivated him to help close this gap.

Mohammed Nije Trip
A villager in Tintinto Village teaches Mohammed about life without reliable clean energy

Mohammed founded Janta Energy, a social enterprise, with the goal of bringing clean, reliable energy to The Gambia. His vision is to see all of Africa have access to reliable affordable clean energy in his lifetime. With support from the Hunt Institute, SMU’s Office of Engaged Learning, the Grand Challenge Scholars program, and the Hart Center for Engineering Leadership, Mohammed initiated a pilot project on his last trip to The Gambia during the winter break in 2019. The project installed solar panels on a school rooftop in a rural area in The Gambia to test capacity and determine elements needed to enhance students’ academic experience.

Items Installed for the pilot project;

  • Five 330 Watt 24 volt solar panels.
  • Two 250 amp, 12-volt solar batteries.
  • A 50 amp solar charge controller.

After several months of usage, the report from the school administrators revealed that having access to electricity created many opportunities for this school and its students.

A library at a school in Tintinto village that now has electricity thanks to Janta Energy.
A library in the school in Tintinto Village now has electricity

According to their report, the school is currently only utilizing 30% of the installed capacity. With this excess capacity, they are in the process of introducing fans throughout the school. The estimated usage is expected to rise to approximately 70% capacity. The school plans to utilize the last 30% to install computers for student use, which will greatly enhance the possibilities for exploration and learning. Once the pilot project is completed, Janta Energy plans to use this concept to build a microgrid, with the school at the center, to help power the entire village. Looking ahead to the future, Janta Energy seeks to replicate the model used in Tintinto Village across other rural villages, eventually spanning the rest of the country.

Stay tuned for more updates from Mohammed, and his Janta Energy continues working to provide The Gambia with access to sustainable electricity. To learn more about the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise Program, visit smu.edu/socialenterprise. Check the Hunt Institute Digest next week to meet another amazing social entrepreneur.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Lab on a Chip Device for COVID-19

A group of multidisciplinary lab researchers collaborated with the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity’s Global Development Lab and Dr. Ali Beskok, as he and his team research to develop a low cost, portable, point of care microfluidic device capable of diagnosing multiple conditions. As part of this project, a broader impact report authored by an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students at the Southern Methodist University working in the Hunt Institute aimed to address the areas of greatest need in response to UNSDG #3 “to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.” The report is titled Bridging the Gap in Diagnostics.

With the recent global pandemic, the team shifted its focus to COVID 19 antibody (immunity) detection.  Dr. Beskok is quoted as saying, “Although the gold standard for antibody detection is the enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA), its application is limited by its portability and high-cost operation. Its detection mechanism relies on receptor/target molecule reactions, which take place through diffusion-dominated transport kinetics. Therefore, the detection mechanism is quite slow and has low sensitivity. Unfortunately, the most recently developed lateral flow assays also exhibit low sensitivity and specificity, and these cannot be reliably used for determining the spread of COVID-19 infection.”

The Multiplexed Assay for the Immune Response to COVID-19 (MAIRC) system the team is developing will offer a quantifiable, accurate, fast, and inexpensive diagnostic method with its customized chips, electronics hardware, and software interface, able to detect immune response to COVID-19 based on human IgG, IgM, and IgA antibodies. The finalized microfluidic chip can be mass-produced with plastic molding or wafer-scale fab.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Better Building with Compressed Earth Blocks

In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 long-term sustainability goals to improve global health, safety, and quality of life. Among those goals are plans to develop future-oriented industry, innovation, and infrastructure and to create sustainable cities and communities with a focus on reducing carbon emissions. With these goals in mind, the Hunt Institute’s Global Development Lab continues to work through the Better Building project is examining the effectiveness of using compressed earth blocks to investigate long-term energy-efficient structures.

Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) are comprised of a mixture of local soil, sand, water, and a stabilizer (such as cement) that is machine-compacted into a mold and allowed to cure for approximately one month. These blocks provide the structure of buildings as alternatives to bricks or other construction materials. The Better Building project researches CEB’s effectiveness as a low-cost and sustainable building material and investigate strategies for scaling CEB into a widespread building material.

SMU Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Dr. Brett Story leads a group of students in a pressure test of earthen bricks on Thursday, July 14, 2016 in the J. Lindsay Embrey Engineering Building on the SMU campus in Dallas.

“Our society as a whole needs to leverage the forces of globalization, technological advancement, and climate change – what the UN calls ‘the three mega forces’ – for disruptive solutions to further inclusive sustainable economic development,” Director of the Hunt Institute Dr. Eva Csaky said. “We can reach this goal by harnessing the power of disruptive collaboration.” The CEB research partnership and collaboration between Dr. Brett Story and the Hunt Institute began in 2015. Dr. Story’s research for Phase I focused on the strength testing of CEBs under a variety of conditions including varying moisture levels, cement content, and soil type.

Phase II focused determining local soil characteristics for different types of soil found globally as a first step in standardization. Designing with CEB requires an understanding of the local soil conditions and how composition, moisture, and other variables interact and affect construction. This process is taught by Dwell Earth, an organization dedicated to spreading this knowledge through hands-on training workshops to share their efficient and intuitive building system. Founder, Adam De Jong, is an Affiliate in the Institute and has consistently provided his expertise to Dr. Story over the years as he expands his research now into Phase III.

Training with Dwell Earth
Training with Dwell Earth

Plans for Phase III will be to compare data pulled from three small-scale prototype structures built from insulated plywood, concrete masonry unit (CMU), and CEB. Duplicate prototypes will produce data to analyze from two locations, one set will be at the SMU @ Taos campus and the second set will be at the SMU’s main campus in Dallas, Texas.

Phase III’s objectives are to perform analyses and compare data from the test structures at both the Taos and Dallas campuses and investigate relationships between soil type and mix design, block strength, and thermal properties. This investigation will also include models developed by Dr. Story’s lab team, which includes Ph.D. students Jase Sitton and Robert Hillyard as well as undergraduate researchers Adriana Mena and Ziyu Sun. The Hunt Institute team includes an undergraduate project manager and the undergraduate researcher, Madison Rodriguez. This team will produce a report analyzing building requirements when using CEB in New Mexico which will inform the vision of a living laboratory in SMU @ Taos.

Dr. Story’s vision is, “…the end goal is to use the data obtained during this project to make recommendations for full-scale, more permanent structures than can be used by faculty and students at the SMU Taos campus. The information learned during this project will be used to start the design of a “living” laboratory, which would be a laboratory building constructed with CEB and instrumented with a variety of sensors. In this way, the structure is both the laboratory space as well as the test specimen.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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EVIE Keeps Evolving

Hunt Institute Evie

The EVIE project is entering its third phase in the Global Development Lab at the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity. Three years after its first public unveiling at Earth Day Texas in 2017, work on the mobile greenhouse has continued to push the boundaries of innovating a solution to Dallas’ fresh produce problem. The purpose of EVIE is to serve Dallas community members as a sustainable opportunity for fresh produce by encouraging their participation in the harvesting, maintaining, and general operations of a greenhouse.

EVIE’s name was derived from Eve, which is commonly associated with life and beginnings, appropriately matching the Institute’s goals for the project. In 2018, the Department of Agriculture identified 88 separate food deserts in Dallas County. Over half of the food deserts were in three southern portions of Dallas, encompassing close to 400,000 residents. EVIE is designed to be movable through areas lacking fresh produce and easily replicable to increase the availability of fresh produce across the food deserts. The first phase of EVIE focused on designing an easily replicable greenhouse model that could function in recycled environments, including an old, rickety Shasta trailer. In Phase II of the project, researchers from the Hunt Institute examined techniques that could facilitate irrigation, solar access, and temperature controls needed to maintain the greenhouse in any environment.

Plant Lab team lead Mitchell Dye works on the roof

Before Phase III could begin, the SMU Engineers Without Boards Plant Lab team gave EVIE a much-needed makeover. The roof had a leak. The makeover was completed right before spring break when the COVID-19 Global Pandemic hit the Unites States. Students are working remotely but unable to physically work on EVIE or in Labs as of June 2020. When they are able to return and resume work, Phase III of EVIE plans to make EVIE nearly autonomous to limit work and outside effort required to maintain the greenhouse. To achieve sustainability, EVIE will run off a solar panel to supply power for any water pumping or climate control measures. In addition, a rain collection system will provide irrigation to the individual planters. Through both of these additions to the current mobile greenhouse, EVIE will be able to provide fresh, healthy produce without requiring significant labor or effort on the part of community members.

The findings from this project hope to contribute to the agriculture value-chain development in rural and urban areas by promoting community involvement and educating local schools, food banks, and churches on environmentally sustainable, hydroponic, aeroponic, and vertical greenhouse growing methods.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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The Resilient Shelter Project: Phase I

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Resilient Shelter Project Icon

The Resilient Shelter project team is excited to announce the completion of its market analysis report titled Seeking Low-Cost Seismic Protection for Urban Masonry in an Unstable Terrain.  Phase I of the Resilient Shelter Project consisted of a market analysis of low-cost methods for seismic protection, specifically focusing on multi-story buildings in urban areas of developing countries. A prior blog post titled “Filling the Gap for Seismic Protection” explained more about the purpose behind the project.

With support from Marcial Blondet, Ph.D., Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and Ph.D. student Kostas Kalfas, Nicos Makris, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the Lyle School of Engineering, is working diligently to formulate a solution that is safe, accessible, and suitable for residents of multi-story urban housing. Dr. Makris, Affiliate supervising the work in the report said, “Part of our role as structural engineers is the design and construction of structures that are affordable to the local society and meet acceptable performance levels at present and the years to come without compromising the ability of future generations to use them, maintain them and benefit from them.” Undergraduate Research Analyst Sam Borton and Undergraduate Project Manager JuliaGrace Walker worked with Kalfas, Dr. Makris, and Dr. Blondet to examine the low-cost seismic protection market and produce a report with their findings.

Discussing his motivation for working on the project, Kalfas said, “It is my steadfast belief that we, as the more benefitted, should always give back to society and especially to those who are not as fortunate” and that the Resilient Shelter Project gave him “the opportunity to contribute directly to the people who need our help.”

In the report, Borton and Walker summarize the existing low-cost propositions and discuss to what extent these methods are feasible for the aforementioned target population in Peru. Finding that even these “low-cost” solutions are out of reach for most of the middle-class residents of Lima, the report makes an alternate proposition. Rocking isolation offers great potential as an innovative and economical seismic protection alternative, but it has yet to be implemented as low-cost housing reinforcement. This emerging system of seismic protection could fill a gap in the market, as it may provide a sufficiently low-cost accessible manner of protecting multi-story buildings.

“After learning about the very real danger that earthquakes posed to certain Peruvian communities, as well as seismically-vulnerable communities around the globe, I was especially motivated to support Dr. Makris in this initiative,” said Borton.

As the report was finalized, the project encountered a delay brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting restrictions on international travel. It is the hope of the various collaborators on the Resilient Shelter project that progress on future phases will commence in the Spring of 2021.

Walker said of her experience with the project, “It has been exciting to work with a team that values and promotes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary relationships. I cannot wait to see what else the Resilient Shelter project can achieve.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Rising Up to the Challenge

Step Up Logo

The STEM Up project is entering its second phase in the Hunt Institute’s Global Development. STEM UP Phase I: Empowering Engineering for Rural STEM Access focused on place-based education specifically targeting rural schools that do not have the same support for STEM initiatives as some urban schools do.

Phase II Centered around helping students interested in computer science develop an understanding of basic engineering principles, the project hopes to transform the classroom into a digital learning environment by offering easily accessible resources and instructions. The average school education plan does not have the resources to provide these educational tools for their students resulting in the students lacking an important part of applicable school concepts. STEM Up aims to bridge the gap between school education and affordable additional practice for young students to help them find or pursue engineering.

Originally, the STEM Up project aimed to create an educational kit using Raspberry Pi, LAN devices, and low-price tablets. The kit targeted students 10 to 14 years old in rural areas. It is specifically geared toward computer science applications because of its practicality in industries such as software and civil engineering, business, and information technology.

Phase II of STEM Up is evolving. We are redesigning the kit to be tested by students in Tintinto Primary and Secondary School located in a village in the The Gambia, a Western country in Africa. It will incorporate an Intranet setup and display devices to create a low cost, portable computer lab which can adapt to the lack of stable electricity and broadband connection in rural areas like Tintinto. The kit will contain all of the materials of an introductory engineering education to inspire students to pursue new topics in their education. Teachers will be able to curate and preload materials, media, and interactive games to augment their curriculum as they introduce computers and their functions to students.

Due to the restrictions in response to COVID-19, plans to travel to the school and interact with both teachers and students to better understand their needs has been delayed. We continue to test the kits capabilities in hopes that once the pandemic is over, we can resume working with the school to develop STEM Up kits that meet their needs.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Mohammed Njie, Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort Entrepreneur

Mohammed Nije, Social Entrepreneur, Inventor, Change Agent, The Gambia, Clean Energy, Digital Access

As the first student Social Entrepreneur in the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise Program, Mohammed Njie joined the Cohort in 2021 and is setting a precedent for dedicated, young entrepreneurship.

Mohammed was born and raised in The Gambia, a country in Western Africa, and has witnessed energy poverty firsthand. He attended high school at one of the few schools with electricity, and seeing students at other institutions without access to the same vital resources inspired him to make a difference in this area.

He is currently conducting research on efficient renewable energy systems that can be used to alleviate energy poverty in developing countries. Mohammed founded Janta Clean Energy with the intention of providing The Gambia with reliable, clean energy. A vision of his is to see all of Africa having access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy during his lifetime.

“I think it is important to realize that here at the Institute we are involved in a lot of projects where we can impact the lives of a lot of different people,” Mohammed said. “For their sake, it is very important that we push through…they are waiting for us.”

Mohammed initiated a pilot project called Innovation inTintinto on his last trip to The Gambia that installed solar panels in rural schools, tested capacity, and determined which elements are needed to enhance students’ academic experience. His second project Illuminating Tintinto expanded on these elements and installed additional panels for Tintinto Primary and Secondary School. Now, centered around these innovative solutions, his current project titled STEM Up Phase II is working to design and implement Wi-Fi-generating computer carts in local schools.

All the while, Mohammed is currently a senior at Southern Methodist University working toward a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and has been recognized as a Grand Challenges Scholar, winner of SMU’s Big Ideas, and is also part of the SMU Incubator.

Discussing his motivation for impact work as a social entrepreneur he said,“My passion for the work I do started when I was young. When you experience the problems you are trying to solve, it becomes personal. So as a young boy, I made it my life’s mission to help solve some of the problems I experienced growing up. So many people are in poverty because they do not have an opportunity. I want to change that.”

The December, Mohammed will be showcasing his work in the Institute’s Impact Forum along with other 2020 & 2021 Social Enterprise Cohorts.

More posts about Mohammed Njie:

December 15, 2019: “2019 Social Enterprise Cohort”

February 28, 2020: “Mohammed Njie – Travel Feature”

July 1, 2020: “Hunt Institute’s First Student Social Entrepreneur” 

November 9, 2020: “Innovation in Tintinto, The Gambia”

December 15, 2020: “2020 Social Enterprise Cohort”

April 13, 2021: “Illuminating Tintinto | Hunt Institute’s Project for SMU Giving Day 2021”

April 14, 2021: “2021 SMU Giving Day: The Power of One Person’s Vision”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.